Capital markets

The ‘great capital markets team’ at Agmon & Co. Rosenberg Hacohen & Co. is jointly headed by Uri Rosenberg and Shirel Guttman-Amira, both of whom, along with Efrat Hozeh-Azrad, have ‘in-depth regulatory knowledge combined with exceptional business understanding’. Recent highlights include advising HSBC, Barclays and Citibank on the $800m Rule 144A/Reg S offering by Israel Chemicals and drafting the prospectus for Ashdod Port as part of its privatisation by means of a share offering.

Competition/antitrust

Agmon & Co. Rosenberg Hacohen & Co.’s ‘lawyers have the uncommon ability to integrate wide and in-depth legal knowledge with superb commercial understanding’. Reputed litigator Zvi Agmon has been representing Noble Energy in a number of proceedings before the Israel Antitrust Authority (IAA) relating to the Leviathan gas field. Hilla Peleg is recommended for class actions. Mattan Meridor has become a sole practictioner at Meridor Law Office – the decision removes a conflict of interest caused by his brother becoming director general of the Ministry of National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources, which is an established client of Agmon & Co. Rosenberg Hacohen & Co..

Projects and energy

Agmon & Co. Rosenberg Hacohen & Co. has ‘an unparalleled record in the oil and gas space, particularly financings’; practice head Dan Hacohen, who is ‘well connected in the field and can help mediate tough negotiations’, is a key adviser to Tamar Consortium including on its gas sales and in relation to its offshore gas field project. Associate Eddie Ashkenazi is also recommended.

Real estate

Avi Porten, who heads Agmon & Co. Rosenberg Hacohen & Co.’s real estate, planning and construction team in Jerusalem, worked alongside Eyal Mamo to handle a number of high-profile transactions in the city including advising Four Seasons Hotel on a NIS1bn hotel development. Tel Aviv team head Ishai Itsikovich is an urban renewal expert.

Litigation

Agmon & Co. Rosenberg Hacohen & Co. ‘explains complex and diverse issues very clearly and in a manner that the clients, regulators, counterparties and courts can grasp quickly’. Founder Zvi Agmon is ‘a brilliant lawyer and very fast thinker’ and Ayelet Golomb-Planer is ‘very intelligent and convincing; a trusted adviser’. Yoav Hirsh is acting for China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation in a contractual dispute. Leumi Bank, which the team has been representing in a dispute arising from an international tax investigation, and IDB Holdings are other clients.

If
you are the operator of a commercial internet website, an online
service or a mobile application (app) ("Operator") and you collect
personally identifiable information (PII) 1 about
consumer residing in California, you need to update your privacy policy
following the enactment of a new California law in order to avoid
potentially significant penalties.

On December 23, 2013, the Israeli Knesset approved Amendment No. 23 to the Israeli Companies Law, 1999 (the " Amendment ", and the " Companies Law ", respectively). The Amendment is primarily concerning the establishment and governance of "Charitable Company Fund" (the " Fund "),
which are companies established in order to finance and fund non-profit
entities. Below is an overview of the main provisions of the Amendment:

On November 5, 2012 the
Israeli Parliament (Knesset) adopted a proposal of the Israeli Ministry of
Finance and passed legislation providing for a temporary tax relief with
respect to the recapture tax applicable to certain Israeli companies holding
undistributed earnings that were previously exempt from Israeli corporate
income tax under tax incentive programs.

Environmental policy and regulation in Israel have developed significantly over the course of the past several years. After decades of what may be considered as regulatory standstill, Israeli environmental regulation has taken a tremendous leap forward. Numerous environmental matters, some of which were not previously regulated and others which were subject to outdated standards, have been revised and updated through new comprehensive statutes, innovative regulations and professional guidelines.

Welcome to the 4 th
edition of Unfolding, which looks at some important developments in Israel in recent
months. Much has happened in Israel since the last edition of Unfolding.
The Israeli economy may be small in scale, but never in the level of its
business activity.

Following on from the Government's decision to adopt the recommendations of the Committee for Increasing Competition in the Marketplace, the Government published last week a Memorandum on the Law for Promotion of Competition and Reduction in Concentration, 5772-2012. The Memorandum aims at providing a statutory framework for implementing the recommendations of the Committee.

Is your business involved in international trade? If the answer to this question is a resounding “YES”, then it might well be time for your business to prepare and adopt a code of conduct that includes procedures to detect and prevent bribery of foreign government officials. The day is coming when not having such a code will be a bar to entering many different lucrative markets and will place you and your business in danger of breaking the law.